I think what gets a poem going is an initiating line. Sometimes a first line will occur, and it goes nowhere; but other times - and this, I think, is a sense you develop - I can tell that the line wants to continue.
Billy CollinsRead
High School is the place where poetry goes to die.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that high school stifles creativity and artistic expression, particularly in poetry.
Billy Collins' quote reflects a common sentiment that many students experience in high school, where traditional education often emphasizes conformity and standardized testing over creative and individual thought. In this environment, poetry—a form of art that thrives on personal expression and imagination—may be overlooked or undervalued, implying that the school setting can inhibit the natural creativity inherent in this art form.
Themes
EducationPoetryCreativityHigh SchoolArt
In practice
Example use cases
During a school board meeting discussing the arts curriculum.
More from Billy Collins
All quotes →People think of poetry as a school subject... Poetry is very frustrating to students because they don't have a taste for ambiguity, for one thing. That gives them a poetry hangover.
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To a poet, it's quite ruinous to have a poem distorted, out of shape, or squeezed, shall we say, into this tiny screen. But I'm not sure big digital companies are sensitive to the needs of poets.
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All they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with a rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.
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And the reason I am writing this on the back of a manila envelope now that they have left the train together is to tell you that when she turned to lift the large, delicate cello onto the overhead rack, I saw him looking up at her and what she was doing the way the eyes of saints are painted when they are looking up at God when he is doing something remarkable, something that identifies him as God.
Billy CollinsRead
The whole world of publishing is moving to electronic, but when you put a poem on a screen and you increase the type size, the shape of a poem changes.
Billy CollinsRead
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